What causes obesity and overweight

Statistics show that eight out of ten people are now overweight. In the United States today over 58 million people are considered overweight. Out of that 58 million, 40 million are considered obese. The statistics also say that there are 3 million people in the United States that are considered to be morbidly obese. The numbers continue to be on the rise year after year. Even though people are spending millions of dollars on a yearly basis trying desperately to lose weight.

What is even worse is the fact that the number of obese children continues to rise every year as well. According to research from the National Institute of Health one in five children today are obese. Most of these children will become obese adults. These children are developing type II diabetes which only manifested in adults previously. They will also be at a higher risk for getting heart disease, having a heart attack or stroke when they become an adult.

So what is causing the number to continue to rise year after year? There have to be reasons that we are losing the battle of the bulge so to speak even though people are spending millions of dollars every year for all sorts of weight loss products trying to lose those few pounds that make them overweight.

The first culprit is the type and amount of food that we eat today. Most families today eat a large amount of processed foods that are full of fats, chemicals and other things that are not nutritious. Lifestyles today are rushed and it is so much easier to throw together hamburger helper, microwave a frozen dinner, fix a sandwich with chips, or eat some other junk food than it is to prepare and eat foods that would give people the proper nutritional values that are needed on a daily basis.

Most people eat on average two to three times the amount of fats that are needed daily. This is the first culprit. Diets today are very high in fats and calories period. What is not full of fat is high in carbohydrates. These types of foods have high caloric value but have little nutritional value. The sad thing is that eating these types of foods leave the person wanting more food pretty quickly. They do not satisfy the appetite. Therefore the vicious cycle continues.

The second factor is behavioral. People in general are not active as their ancestors were. Lifestyles today are much more sedentary than they were even 30-40 years ago. With all the technology that has been developed, it is very common for someone to be sitting for long periods of time where they work every day. This was not true in the past. Then the average person goes home and watches three to five hours of television per day. If they do not watch television, they are glued to the computer for hours every day. This type of daily behavior does not lead to a healthy body. No activity and eating a diet high in calories leads to large fat stores around the organs and in the tissues of the body. This equals weight gain and obesity.

The third factor takes in genetic tendencies to be overweight, hormonal imbalances, and metabolic disorders that cause a person to be predisposed to being overweight. If a person has these issues they need to work with their medical provider to find programs or medications to help them combat these issues.

Until habits and diets change the trend and numbers of those who are obese are going to continue to rise. This will lead to increased health problems in both children and adults in the future. People really need to pay more attention to these issues as it is much easier to prevent these problems than it is to combat them once they have gotten to the point of becoming health issues that can endanger lives.

Last updated on Nov 2nd, 2010 and filed under Weight Loss. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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